polurls / purple

the political blog aggregator for moderates

Neon signs all around Boston are very attractive especially to drinkers under the age of 21. The only thing preventing them from going on wild, drunken nights and fun college parties is their age – or the strictness of bars [...]

In Chicago, Illinois, seized fake IDs can be found at the Secretary of State offices. Since 1984, when the legal drinking age of 21 was implemented, the fake ID market was born, and King of Fakes emerged as a leader [...]

The Independent: “A reduction in working hours generally correlates with marked reductions in energy consumption, as economists David Rosnick and Mark Weisbrot have argued. In fact, if Americans simply followed European levels of working hours, for example, they would see [...]

The Economist: “The flipside of low wages for illegal immigrants, though, is greater economic benefits for those who are not competing with them for work. A rare study of the effect of illegal immigrants specifically found that in Georgia, a [...]

A must-read piece from the Boston Consulting Group: “In polls, sizable majorities in the United States and key European countries now demand a reorientation around narrow national interests, proclaiming, ‘Let other countries deal with their own problems.’ As more people [...]

Financial Times: “Below are five of the most statistically significant of these factors. Polling ahead of the referendum had long since identified education as one of the fundamental drivers of voting intention, and the demographic data shows that this was [...]

In today’s episode, Cliff and I talk about #SharpieGate — Trump sextupling down on his claim that Hurricane Dorian was expected to hit Alabama, when it wasn’t — and why the story is a great foil for beating Trump in 2020. We also discuss GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s creepy views on guns and domestic violence. Below is a […]

The post Why #SharpieGate could spell trouble for Trump in 2020 appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

Today’s UnPresidented podcast is mostly about guns, starting with Meghan McCain’s horrific comments about how gun owners will resort to violence if we dare ban their assault weapons, only going to prove that those gun owners are unworthy of owning any guns at all. We also talk about GOP Congressman Dan Crenshaw thinking it’s okay […]

The post Meghan McCain says gun owners will resort to violence to stop an assault weapons ban appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

In today’s UnPresidented Podcast, below, Cliff and I focus most of our discussion on the Dept. of Justice Inspector General report about James Comey having broken FBI rules, but not the law, when he informed the country that Donald Trump was a traitorous felon. We also talk about General Mattis pulling a Mueller and not […]

The post Comey broke a rule, Trump broke the law appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

After 2016, it’s understandable that Democrats are wary of polls predicting victory against Trump next year. Also, we’ve got another 15 months to election day, and anything can happen between now and then. Having said all of that, the new Quinnipiac poll is just God-awful news for Trump, and it’s not the kind of thing […]

The post New poll is just AWFUL for Trump; Voter concern about the economy grows appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

Democratic poll expert Rachel Bitecofer joins our podcast again to talk about the 2020 election, Joe Walsh’s candidacy (and why it matters), the issues Democrats should focus on (from the economy to overall anti-Trump angst), and more. As always, an enjoyable and high-info discussion that I know you’ll enjoy. This is one of our free […]

Today’s episode is devoted to the mania that is Donald Trump. We got rolling with a discussion of the Greenland meltdown, and kind of just took off from there, especially after, mid-show, Trump decided to compare the Federal Reserve chair to the communist dictator of China, and then “hereby ordered” American companies to leave China […]

The post Trump hereby orders you to laugh appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

Making a point about Defense Department waste, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang related a secondhand story about a Navy fighter pilot who said that airmen routinely dumped fuel into the Pacific Ocean at the end of the fiscal year as a way to preserve the following year's fuel budget. But the story doesn't add up.

A meme circulating on Facebook wrongly attributes a statement about guns to former President Ronald Reagan. The quote is actually from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, co-authors of The Communist Manifesto.

The post Marx, Engels Quote Falsely Attributed to Reagan appeared first on FactCheck.org.

A social media meme inaccurately claims that Walmart will no longer sell rifles. Walmart stopped selling “military-style rifles such as the AR-15,” in 2015, and has announced it will no longer sell ammunition for "military-style weapons." It still sells “long guns for hunting and sport shooting.”

The post Meme Misleads on Walmart Gun Sales appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Twice in the last five weeks, Joe Biden has claimed that despite voting to authorize military force against Iraq in 2002, he opposed the Iraq war from "the moment" it began. That's not accurate, and Biden now says he misspoke.

Despite its central role on the Democratic debate stage in Houston, Medicare for All remains fuzzy in one key respect: The price tag. At one point, former Vice President Joe Biden said it would cost $30 trillion. And Sen. Bernie Sanders, author of the bill, didn’t argue. "Joe said that Medicare for All would cost over $30 trillion," Sanders said. "Status quo, over 10 years, will be $50 trillion." Sanders said the net savings would be "substantial." The reality is that predicting the cost of Medicare for All is a tricky business. There is no debate that federal spending on ... >>More

Unity was in the air on Thursday, as a trimmed-down cast of 10 Democratic presidential candidates met on the debate stage again and nodded to the stakes: another four years of President Donald Trump. And then the opening statements concluded. The first question plunged the candidates into another debate about the merits and missteps of a "Medicare for All" plan. It was a fitting set-up for the marquee match-up of this third Democratic presidential debate, between former Vice President Joe Biden — whose health care proposal includes a government-run public option insurance plan — and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, ... >>More

During the third Democratic primary debate, Sen. Cory Booker challenged other candidates to join him in promising clemency for people who have been "unjustly incarcerated." Booker took aim at what he described as racial inequalities in the criminal justice system, noting that the war on drugs has unfairly targeted minority populations. "We can specifically and demonstrably now show that there are 17,000 people unjustly incarcerated in America," Booker said. "All of us should come forward and say when we are president of the United States, when I am president of the United States, we will release them." See Figure 1 ... >>More

The showdown between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party — and frontrunners Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — never really reached a boil, as the Democratic candidates for president trained their harshest jabs for President Donald Trump. But policy differences at the third Democratic presidential debate did become more clear, particularly on the issue of health care. PolitiFact analyzed several statements made by the candidates on the debate stage at Houston’s Texas Southern University. See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com Beto O'Rourke and Julián Castro on Sept. 12, 2019, during a Democratic presidential primary debate in Houston. ... >>More

During the dog days of August — as commentators were already wondering whether the nearly decade-long economic recovery was on its last legs — government number-crunchers made an announcement that jolted economists. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that, according to preliminary data, 501,000 fewer jobs had been created between March 2018 to March 2019 than officials had initially estimated. No one lost their job over it, because adjusting the numbers isn’t unusual — in fact, the government does it routinely. Sometimes the numbers go up, and sometimes they go down. In this case, the government realized that it had been ... >>More

"Defendants submitted their last offer on June 13, 2019 at 10:47 AM, while Plaintiffs' counsel, Attorney Lee Plakas, was actually presenting his closing argument on punitive damages. Defendants conditioned that offer on it being accepted before the jury began deliberations on punitive damages."

A veteran battling Huntington's disease told Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) – who held a town hall in Carson City, Nevada, on Friday – that he is considering suicide due to the crippling amount of medical debt he has accumulated.

Decorated Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was acquitted of murder in a war crimes trial this past July, has sued two of his former lawyers and a military legal defense nonprofit, according to court documents filed in Texas Friday.

Via Tyler Cowen, here are a couple of interesting charts from Thomas Piketty about voting patterns in the US. Generally speaking, poor and working-class folks vote for Democrats, while more affluent people vote for Republicans. But 2016 was an odd outlier: There’s a big range here, but in general the richer you are the more […]

538 has some interesting charts showing who did well and who did poorly at last night’s debate. Here’s one that shows before and after from a single panel of likely voters: I suppose I’m glad to see that my instincts were mostly confirmed. Of the top-tier candidates, Warren did well and Harris did poorly. Another […]

A few days ago the inspector general for the intelligence community notified Congress of a whistleblower complaint that was both credible and a matter of “urgent concern.” Rep. Adam Schiff, the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, naturally asked the Director of National Intelligence to provide a copy of the complaint, as […]

In the previous post I mentioned that I was reading Elizabeth Warren’s The Two-Income Trap, which makes the point that two-earner families are unusually vulnerable to economic setbacks. Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, if dad got laid off and money was tight, mom could temporarily pitch in by taking in laundry or whatnot. But […]

In case you’re wondering, I am now a slave to a chemical clock. A very unpredictable chemical clock. Last night, for no special reason, the Evil Dex kept me up until 4:30 and then didn’t wake me up until 9:30. That’s pretty inconvenient, though it is five hours of sleep, which isn’t too bad. I […]

Sept. 9, 2019 | Bob Boilen -- It's 10 years almost to the day since we published The Tallest Man On Earth's Tiny Desk in 2009. What I remember most about that performance was the intensity of Kristian Matsson and how astonished our audience was to discover him. I think of it as one of our very first viral videos. Tiny Desk Concerts were in their infancy in 2009; we had recorded only about 25 by the time he visited my desk. Now, almost 850 Tiny Desk Concerts later, The ...

Today's program from our podcasting affiliate, The Bob Cesca Show powered by Warshauer Law Group:

Mom I Wanna Vape -- NSFW! The Goth Ninjas, TRex David Ferguson and Jody Hamilton are here; Day One of the Impeachment of Donald Trump; Previewing tonight's Democratic debate; The North Carolina special election results and Dem turnout; Trump to regulate vaping to protect Melania's son; John Bolton may have leaked about Trump and nuking hurricanes; Gorka wants to be national security adviser to own the libs; North Carolina Republicans exploit Sept 11; With music by 3Force and CC Grace; and more!

The President revealed today that he fired National Security Advisor John Bolton not because of the recent Taliban situation, but because Bolton had angered the North Korean leader by suggesting the U.S. attempt the "Libyan model" to deal with Little Rocket Man. #LSSC #Monologue #Colbert

(Paul Mirengoff) Ronna McDaniel, president of the Republican National Committee, says that RNC research shows President Trump’s approval among Hispanic Americans in Texas to have increased by 20 percent since 2016. That would mean Trump has nearly 1 million new Hispanic supporters. Has Trump’s support among Hispanics in Texas really increased that much? I don’t know, but it’s plausible to think it has increased significantly, both in Texas and elsewhere. McDaniel points

(John Hinderaker) Minneapolis once had the reputation of being a nice city. That seems, now, like a long time ago in a galaxy far away. These days, the reality is different. This sickening video of a gang of youths viciously brutalizing a man just outside Target Field, where the Twins play baseball, has gone national. It is visual proof of how feral downtown Minneapolis has become: More and more, violence intrudes on

(Paul Mirengoff) Immigration was always going to be a topic of discussion during Thursday’s Democratic debate. Thus, the candidates should have been prepared to speak about immigration, if not intelligently than at least without getting basic facts wrong. As Mark Krikorian documents, Joe Biden and Andrew Yang were unable to pass this modest test. Biden claimed that during the Obama administration, “we didn’t lock people up in cages; we didn’t separate families.”

(John Hinderaker) One of the more shocking aspects of last week’s Democratic debate was the cavalier manner in which the Constitution was treated. Beto O’Rourke said he intends to confiscate guns that were legally purchased by law-abiding Americans, and put out a t-shirt to that effect immediately after the debate. Kamala Harris said the same thing, and when Joe Biden pointed out that the government lacks power to do what she proposed,

(Scott Johnson) The highlight of the Dems’ debate this week must have been the 30-second advertisement run by Elizabeth Heng’s New Faces GOP PAC (video below). In the ad Ms. Heng explains the true meaning of socialism to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her followers. Gary Saul Morson gives a longer account of the phenomenon in “How the truth dawned.” Glenn Reynolds offers this characteristically concise and optimistic take on the ad and AOC’s

I'm delighted to report that my colleague Joanna Schwartz, who has written extensively on policing and on litigation against the police, will be guest-blogging this coming week about her forthcoming Columbia Law Review article, After Qualified Immunity. I much look forward to her posts!

The 2013 Supreme Court decision nullifying federal "preclearance" requirements for states and local governments with a past history of discriminating against minority voters continues to have widespread repercussions as those same discriminatory states and counties methodically undertake efforts to once again make voting a more cumbersome and restricted process. A new Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights report once again seeks to quantify those acts, and once again finds that jurisdictions freed from prior preclearance requirements are shutting down their own polling places at an accelerated pace.

Updating a prior 2016 study, the Leadership Conference was now able to collect data for 757 of the 860 counties previously subject to preclearance. Those counties collectively shuttered nearly 1,700 polling places since the 2013 Shelby County vs. Holder decision; most were justified under claims of "consolidating" polling locations.

The family of Seth Rich, the murdered DNC employee whom Fox News tried to frame as the leaker of DNC emails to Wikileaks (in order to get the Russians off the hook) has had its lawsuit against Fox News reinstated thanks to a federal appeals court that reversed a prior decision dismissing it.

You may recall that last year, a federal court dismissed the Rich family’s suit, on technical grounds, in what was hardly a vindication of Fox News’ slimy, untruthful and hurtful reporting.

Today, the federal Court of Appeals reversed that decision with the result that the Rich’s case can now proceed. In its article on this reversal, Politico notes that the court seemed particularly troubled by Sean Hannity’s behavior and Fox News’ tacit acceptance:

The judges also seemed troubled that while Fox retracted [reporter Malia] Zimmerman’s reports and deleted them from the network’s ...

Joy Ann Reid and her producers put together two hours of the most incisive news commentary each week, with panels that reflect the diversity in America more than any other news show in the US. She's unafraid to put conservatives on her show and demand that they stick to facts and not filibuster with slurs or get the hell out.

After his pathetic speech in Baltimore, Reid certainly had fun at his expense with his old man rants at the wind and light bulbs. This seemed to bother the notoriously thin-skinned Trump, because he decided to launch his not-terribly-original Twitter attack on her.

Who the hell is Joy-Ann Reid? Never met her, she knows ZERO about me, has NO talent, and truly doesn’t have the “it” factor needed for success in showbiz. Had a bad reputation ...

The three Republicans challenging Donald Trump for the Presidential nomination for the 2020 election wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that the cancellation of state level primaries is a mistake - and they are right.

It is not unheard of for the incumbent party to cancel state level primaries in order to save money and negate the likelihood of the current sitting President losing the nomination to another party member. BUT that is only a viable position if their candidate is doing well and is likely to win re-election. As we can see from Trump's dwindling numbers (he is not at 38% approval) and the prospect of an economic downturn (the economy is the only thing really keeping Trump afloat), it is not a lock that he will win in 2020. So why did four states cancel their primaries? Probably fear of nasty tweets.

Earlier this week, a long, detailed, receipts-laden report dropped on Jerry Falwell Jr. and his lovely wife Becki, detailing how Falwell was using university resources for his own gain, how he bullied campus staff at Liberty University, and how he often bragged about his sexual prowess to anyone who would listen. Additionally, there were photos of Falwell and his family partying it up (with margaritas and drinks!) at a Miami nightclub, which would ordinarily be no big deal, except that Liberty U has some serious rules about dancing and drinking.

After that report came out, Reuters reported that Falwell Jr. called a student "retarded" and blasted the school's police chief as a "half-wit." Presumably he wasn't doing this while bragging about the size of his penis, but you never know, since he was reported to brag about ...

If you have the opportunity to watch Honeyland in a theater, take it. Just shy of ninety minutes long, there's a lot that is packed into this story, and you'll leave the theater having a newfound appreciation for strong individuals like Hatdize.

The post ‘Honeyland’ Does Not Feel Like A Documentary, Which Is Great appeared first on The Moderate Voice.

This is probably one of my shortest posts (I hear some applause from the audience) and it doesn’t contain any of my writing (more applause) – except for the intro. It is about a man in Croatia who has been taking care of an injured stork for 25 years. It is about man’s love for […]

WASHINGTON — After spending the first half-hour of Thursday’s debate tearing each other apart over health care — which happens to be their party’s strongest issue — the Democratic presidential candidates realized that their opponent is Donald Trump and acted accordingly. As a result, despite jabs and disagreements throughout a three-hour marathon, they offered a […]

The post Democrats finally realized who their real opponent is appeared first on The Moderate Voice.

September 13, 1969 – a date enshrined in animation history. On that Saturday morning, a canine star was born. It was then that CBS debuted a brand-new cartoon called Scooby Doo Where Are You! Since then, Scooby and the Gang have entered the hearts of millions of fans. In honor of Scooby’s 50th anniversary, here […]

The post Happy 50th Anniversary, Scooby-Doo! appeared first on The Moderate Voice.

Anti-immigrant groups are organizing a rally in support of ICE in Montgomery County. Stand up against hate and in solidarity with our immigrant communities. Join this counter-protest on Friday at 10:30 am in Rockville. See FB event link for more info: https://t.co/EVvMYfAOlm pic.twitter.com/t27mQBc7Ip

If you are a self-declared Donald Trump-hating “activist journalist” who works for an ethnic separatist TV network that unapologetically elevates illegal immigrants over American citizens, you get to be a “moderator” at the next Democratic presidential candidates’ debate.

Case in point: Univision’s Jorge Ramos.

But if you are an activist journalist who exposes immigration anarchy, investigates the global financiers behind it and unapologetically defends American sovereignty, you are dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist” and “racist” who will never be allowed to pose counterbalancing questions at any national political forum.

Case in point: yours truly.

If there is no mainstream media bias, why is it that the most buzz-worthy immigration questions asked by the media’s phony arbiters of neutrality are all framed from ...

That’s my response to the latest trial balloon floated by the White House to join with Silicon Valley on a creepy program monitoring Americans’ “neurobehavioral signs” to (purportedly) prevent gun violence.

President Donald Trump’s old friend, former NBC head Bob Wright, has been pushing an Orwellian surveillance scheme called “Safe Home” — “Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes” — that would cost taxpayers between $40 million and $60 million. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, reports that the plan could incorporate “Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echo and Google Home,” as well as ” fMRIs, tractography and image analysis.”

Here’s the big lie: Wright’s group promises that privacy will be “safeguarded,” profiling “avoided” and data protection capabilities a “cornerstone of this effort.”

Dear fellow patriots: It’s time to stop making nice with those who are waging war on ICE.

Are you sick of your neighborhoods being hijacked by law enforcement-bashing thugs who prioritize every last illegal immigrant over law-abiding families, workers and employers?

Are you sick of do-nothing politicians promising to take action while well-funded and well-organized protesters riot in our streets and obstruct criminal arrests?

Are you sick of nobody (except for a few demonized Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer activists) standing up on the front lines against the American flag hijackers and knee-takers and hatred-inciters threatening ICE employees and Border Patrol agents and their families?

If so, I hope you will join me as I tour the country the next few months and take the battle for our safety and security straight to the nation’s worst open borders sanctuaries.

Triggering the Google Social Credit System
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2019

I learned last week from a Silicon Valley whistleblower, who spoke with the intrepid investigative team at Project Veritas, that my namesake news and opinion website is on a Google blacklist.

Thank goodness the Big Tech giant hasn’t taken over the newspaper syndication business yet. Twenty years of column writing have allowed me to break news and disseminate my opinions without the tyranny of social justice algorithms downgrading or whitewashing my words. But given the toxic metastasis of social media in every aspect of our lives, especially for those who make their living exercising the First Amendment, it may only be a matter of time before this column somehow falls prey to the Google Ministry of Truth, too.

Open Borders Inc.: Who’s Funding the Wicked War on ICE?
by Michelle Malkin
Creators SyndicateCopyright 2019

All the gun control zealots out in full force last week have apparently gone to the beach. An alarming shooting took place at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in San Antonio on Tuesday. Local media reported that “multiple shots were fired on two floors targeting ICE officials.” But the Second Amendment saboteurs were AWOL.
Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Federal government workers are under literal fire for enforcing our immigration laws and protecting America. But left-wing Moms Demand ignored the story. So did the anti-gun Brady agitators. And the usual stampede of camera-hogging Democrat presidential candidates lost their unquenchable thirst for the spotlight to blame “hate speech” for inducing violence.

The vacuum is bipartisan. With few exceptions, Beltway Republicans have also lost their tongues when they should be relentlessly smashing the ...

A “longtime Fox News producer” has told DCReport that not only is Donald Trump unpopular at the network, but that “people are getting bolder about saying so.” However, I would argue that represents a growing chasm there more than an official change of purpose or direction, at least at this point.

The family of Seth Rich, the murdered DNC employee whom Fox News tried to frame as the leaker of DNC emails to Wikileaks (in order to get the Russians off the hook) has had its lawsuit against Fox News reinstated thanks to a federal appeals court that reversed a prior decision dismissing it.

Fox Business host and Trump toady extraordinaire Lou Dobbs visited the White House and, after a likely enthusiastic reception, concluded he knows more about its morale than the White House correspondents who actually work there.

Things got heated when Fox News host Neil Cavuto challenged White House trade adviser Peter Navarro for starting a new Trump offensive against international postal rates. Navarro acted as though he had a right to Cavuto’s support.

Ah, fall is here – the heat is breaking, the mosquitos are finally disappearing, football is back, and our Lefty pals remain bat (guano) crazy! First we jump into the wayback machine and drop a few stories we missed along the way: 8/23 – The tragic — and overlooked — fallout from the ’60s sexual... Read more »

It’s strange to know young adults now, who have no personal recollection of the 9/11 attacks. Even stranger still to know people who lived that day and seem to have “moved on”, without interest to look back and reflect. Damning, triggering cartoon. To not remember; and to not remember those no longer with... Read more »

Something stinks. It’s the story of the spy extracted from Russia. First, Jim Sciutto is told something and he breathlessly and factlessly pumps the story ad nauseum. Washington (CNN)In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple... Read more »

Lying by the left wing media is absolutely out of control Item 1 CNN’s Jim Sciutto lies through his teeth about the spy extraction CIA slams CNN’s ‘misguided’ and ‘simply false’ reporting on alleged CIA spy’s extraction from Kremlin The Central Intelligence Agency on Monday evening slammed what it called CNN’s “misguided” and... Read more »

Sciutto (Def): A goober so eager to embarrass the President that he doesn’t wait for facts and later has to eat it. You have to hand it to CNN. They seen determined to hit the bottom of the cesspit. Today CNN reporter Jim Sciutto reported this: Washington (CNN)In a previously undisclosed secret mission in... Read more »

This week will have guest bloggers from my Sociology Senior Seminar on Public Sociology. I remember the first week of my college like it was yesterday. I drove eight and a half hours from Pennsylvania with my mother. We are from a bigger city than where we were headed. Driving into Danville, at first, I immediately second guessed my decision because of the demographics and pure relative size of Danville. I had stepped into a town that, normally, at home we would consider to be “country” and “redneck” because of its small town, antique feeling it emitted. I did not realize that to the citizens of Danville, and even Louisville and Lexington natives considered to be more refined than an actual country town, especially due to the prestigious nature of the college. My whole definition of southern towns was altered, and thus gave me hope for the next four years ...

This week we will have guest bloggers from my Sociology Senior Seminar on Public Sociology.

Recently, I have been interested in thinking more critically about birth order, especially within my own family. Particularly, I have been wondering if there could be a connection between the rigidness of birth order expressed in children and the political ideologies of the family, mainly the parents. I know that it is nearly impossible to compare specific families, especially combine with their political views. For this reason, I will be focusing on my own family and personal experiences. I want to explore the idea that dynamic choices for children are not invalidated by parents, a child in a liberal family will likely feel comfortable choosing different paths. But, those paths might likely relate to the parents and those family ideologies. A little background- I am the third of four sisters. My eldest sister, Nettie, is ...

This week will have guest bloggers from my Sociology Senior Seminar on Public Sociology.

While falling down the rabbit hole of Twitter the other day, a Tweet popped up that caught my eye. “I would vote for this as the worst piece on climate change yet published this decade-” Alex Steffen begins, “flawed in both concept and execution, morally cowardly, and lavishly self-indulgent.” With gorgeous words such as those, I felt personally compelled to take a peek at the New Yorker article attached, and it continued to compel/frustrate me so much after reading it to the point of having to making this post. Mr. Jonathan Franzen, a famous (or rather infamous) essayist and novelist known for taking extreme positions on topics he feels compelled to discuss, as well as a self-declared “non-scientist” has spurred many to challenge his opinions due to his vocal take that keeping the world from ...

This week will have guest bloggers from my Sociology Senior Seminar on Public Sociology. On Saturday, September 7thof 2019, it was once again reinforced that women’s sports are less important than men’s sports, and in this particular instance, the dogma that football reigns over everything. University of Maine and Temple University traveled close to a combined 1,300 miles to play a neutral division one field hockey game at Kent State University beginning at 9 a.m. On this same day, the Kent State football team had a game scheduled for 12:00 p.m., with fireworks set to go off just before the start time. The field hockey game was a very competitive one, resulting in overtime play. However, due to the firework safety policy, Kent State administrators came onto the field at 10:30 a.m. to end the match due to the safety ...

This week will have guest bloggers from my Sociology Senior Seminar on Public Sociology.

As I waited for my large iced coffee, an essential luxury for “long” days of class, I made my way to the extras table so that I could grab a little green straw before stopping short, remembering at once that I had a stash of environmentally friendly, rainbow stainless steel straws in my backpack. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to display to my peers that I was making a conscious decision to save the planet, if I could do it, why weren’t they? The irony of this situation, however, did not escape me - I was willing to give myself a pat on the back for replacing the straw while still using a plastic cup and lid that, while “recyclable”, were still designed as single-use. Even more, I had a healthy collection of various ...

A Pew study shows that Democrats and Republicans are very divided about which issues are important.

I see one possible bridge: the federal deficit.

Republican ideology is that the budget deficit is bad; Democrats, since FDR, have taken a more Keynesian view that sometimes we can live with budget deficits for a higher national purpose.

However, since President Reagan, Republican policies have increased the federal deficit, while Democratic policies have decreased it. Under President Trump the deficit is the greatest it has ever been, and is growing gigantically.

Persons of good will in both parties could take this opportunity to at least start talking the same language about reducing the federal budget deficit. This could allow them to look at the last 40 years of policy to see what actually helps -- and hurts -- to achieve that shared end.

John Bolton resigned as President Donald Trump's national security adviser over disagreement about relieving sanctions on Iran.

According to Axios, Bolton resigned one day after Trump suggested relieving severe economic sanctions on the Islamic nation, a source close to Bolton told the news outlet.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Bolton did not agree with giving Iran sanction relief and "believed the maximum pressure campaign was working," Axios reported.

The conversation happened Monday. By Tuesday, Bolton resigned his post.

One day later, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani "signaled approval" of Bolton's departure, the Associated Press reported. Bolton is widely seen as a war hawk, which certainly made Iran uneasy given increased tensions Iran has generated in the Middle East this year.

The Daily Beast reported this week that Trump is actively considering offering Iran a $15 billion line-of-credit under the condition that Tehran complies with rules established by former President Barack ...

Following a trend that seems to be sweeping the country, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, has made it illegal to release a helium balloon. The offense would be punishable by a fine of up to $250 dollars.

Numerous counties, cities, and states have moved in recent months and years to ban the release of helium balloons, which used to be a commonplace practice at weddings, graduations, and other celebrations. Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, and California have already banned the practice.

More states and cities are also on the horizon. The Associated Press reports that Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Maine have all debated bills that would ban the release of balloons. And, as reported by TheBlaze, the Kentucky legislature proposed such a measure earlier this year.

The primary reason for banning the practice is environmental. Environmentalists note that non-biodegradable balloon fragments often end up ...

In what some people are calling an example of nanny statism gone horribly wrong,
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials announced that they had arrested three people for illegally picking saw palmetto berries on Friday.

According to the Panama City News Herald, a spokesperson for the FWC told the newspaper that they had been working on a sting to catch the berry bandits since last Thursday. The berries had been picked from a portion of Elgin Air Force Base that had wild saw palmetto plants growing.

The spokesperson, who was identified as Bekah Nelson, was further quoted as saying, "This is something that also happens in
South Florida, but individuals that are attempting to harvest saw palmetto berries, and I believe that's a misdemeanor to do so, you have to be permitted."

The extract of saw palmetto berries is
believed to be a homeopathic remedy for a number ...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) warned Friday that Beto O'Rourke's threat to confiscate AR-15s and other similar semi-automatic firearms from American citizens will backfire on the Democratic Party, unraveling decades of work to progress the gun control agenda.

Coons told CNN he believes O'Rourke's comments will become the rallying cry of Second Amendment advocates for years to come.

"I frankly think that that clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations that try to scare people by saying that Democrats are coming for your guns," Coons said.

"I'm a gun owner," he continued. "My sons and I have gone skeet shooting and hunting and, frankly, I don't think having our presidential candidates, like Congressman O'Rourke did, say that we're going to try and take people's guns against their will is a wise either policy or political move."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) claimed this week that Miami will cease to exist in a few years due to climate change.

While speaking at a NAACP forum on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez sounded the alarm on climate change in order to push her controversial Green New Deal, responding to critics who blast the proposal as not realistic.

"When it comes to climate change, what is not realistic is not responding with a solution on the scale of the crisis — because what's not realistic is Miami not existing in a few years," Ocasio-Cortez said.

"So we need to be realistic about the problem," she added.

AOC Says Miami Won't Exist In A Few Years
www.youtube.com

The freshman Democrat published the Green New Deal in February, resulting in a barrage of criticism and mockery.

Although Ocasio-Cortez purports the proposal mostly focuses on combatting climate change, her now-former chief of ...

The Department of Justice inspector general is approaching the conclusion of his investigation into allegations of bias at the origins of the Russia investigation, according to a letter sent to lawmakers Friday, and has provided a draft report of its findings to the DOJ.

to be a parent is to be compromised. You pledge allegiance to justice for all, you swear that private attachments can rhyme with the public good, but when the choice comes down to your child or an abstraction - even the well-being of children you don't know - you'll betray your principles to the fierce unfairness of love.

Krystal Marie Ball is an American journalist, politician, and news talk anchor on The Hill's news program Rising with the Hill's Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti. She is also a businesswoman and certified public accountant.

High-profile evangelical conservative Jerry Falwell Jr., a staunch Trump supporter and president of Liberty University, wants the FBI to investigate current and former university employees for ... forwarding emails.

The NYT reports.Five months after the fire, the French authorities have refused to fully disclose the results of their testing for lead contamination, sowing public confusion.... [I]t took a month before city officials conducted the first lead tests at a school close to Notre-Dame. Even today, city and regional health officials have not tested every school in the proximity of the cathedral.

The tests showed levels of lead dust above the French regulatory standard for buildings hosting children in at least 18 day care centers, preschools and primary schools. In dozens of other public spaces, like plazas and streets, authorities found lead levels up to 60 times over the safety standard. Soil contamination in public parks may be among the biggest concerns....

Some French officials and lead experts have cautioned against ‘‘paranoia’’ and argued that in a city as old as Paris, not all of the high lead ...

"... who make no attempt to pass as actual women, and don’t necessarily want to be women, but dress up as a caricature of a woman. Sure, some have bawdy names, and in the context of a late night gay bar, they can say some bawdy things. But they’re not really about sex at all. They’re about costume and play; their clothes and hair are exaggerated, over-the-top parodies of women’s appearance; their makeup is often cray-cray, their wigs absurd. They also reinforce, rather than undermine, gender norms in a weird, over-the-top way...."

Writes Andrew Sullivan, opposing the opposition to the Drag Queen Story Hour some libraries have for children.Children love drag queens the way they love clowns or circuses or Halloween or live Disney characters in Disney World. It’s dress-up fun.... And yes, Dave Chappelle, the sanest man in America at the moment, is right ...

I'm a big fan of r/AmItheAsshole and have read all the entries for the last few weeks. Usually, it's more of a conundrum or it's somebody who needs and deserves assurance that they are not the asshole. But this one takes the cake. I kind of especially enjoy when a true asshole posts with what looks like the expectation that they are not the asshole. I have a natural inclination to defend the absent party, so I like when someone who thinks they're right is met with a response that understands the other perspective and represents it well.

UPDATE: Reddit moderators have taken the post down and locked the comments over there. They explain:You want assholes to post on this subreddit? How about next time you don't eviscerate OP in the comments. I don't care how ...

"Taking care to cover those bits that act as a sexual signal felt like a necessary step to de-weaponize my body.... Just as heavier women are assumed to be 'unhealthy,' and skinny women are evaluated as 'needing a sandwich,' you are cast as a harlot; a man-eater. A simple T-shirt over an ample bosom is rendered obscene, and you mustn’t be too tempting.... [S]chools and sports teams should be mindful that they aren’t ostracizing girls based on arbitrary modesty codes that have the effect of penalizing certain body types. When they do this, they are not only participating in the oversexualization of these girls, but they give power to the negative attitudes toward curvier body types by turning them into policy."

Writes Amanda MacLean in "The Obscenity of Curves/Oversexualizing female athletes is dangerous" (NYT)(writing in reaction to that story about the high school competitive swimmer ...

If you don't care about the subject of a post, that's fine. But if, for whatever reason, you choose to comment and explain a) that you don't care about the subject of a post, or, b) why you don't care about the subject of the post, you will be banned.

If we're discussing football, those who don't follow football are not welcome to join the discussion. If we're discussing Mongolian music, those who don't like it are not welcome to join the discussion. If we're discussing video games, those who don't play them are not welcome to join the discussion. And if you don't understand why people are interested in the subject of a post, keep your curiosity to yourself. It's not your concern, it's not your problem, and it's not your business.

Don't even think about reacting, let alone overreacting, to Trump helping out a political ally in an election fight. Not for at least two days.U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible mutual defense treaty between the two nations, a move that could bolster Netanyahu's re-election bid just days before Israelis go to the polls.

"I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries," Trump said on Twitter.

He added that he looked forward to continuing those discussions later this month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Netanyahu thanked Trump, saying in a tweet that Israel "has never had ...

Republicans are demographically finished. Again.For decades, the Republicans have told their voters that they were going to clamp down on illegal immigration and address the legal immigration policies that have facilitated this takeover. They have made excuse after excuse for not fulfilling those promises and now that lack of action is turning Texas blue one district at a time.

It won’t stop with these districts. District 14 in Texas is to the south of district 22. It is currently 52% white and 25% Latino. Just as in other districts, Congressman Weber has seen no serious effort from Democrats since taking office. This will soon change.

Districts 22 and 23 will turn blue in 2020 and/or 2022. Districts 14, 27, and 10 will follow suit by 2026. After this, the dominoes will fall one by one.

The palm tree grows and flowersAs she sings softly my soul retainsHonorable ladyCompassionate and delicateThe Argali springs and flies in the mountainsHer fondness melts me languidlyHonorable ladyCompassionate and lovelyThe birds sing and tweet in the blue skyThey are happy and joyful in their soulsHonorable ladyCompassionate and mesmerizingWith the precious words of your forefathersWith the milk blessed road of your mother's, the true pathWith the power of love for your motherlandHave a fighter spirit in your body, be steadyAs if you were a sword with a sharp bladeAs if you were an arrow ready to shoot, spring and fly, ride and rise
Posted by Vox Day.

Mozilla has taken corporate SJW activism to new depths:Firefox maker Mozilla is trying to shame YouTube into “fixing” its recommendation algorithm, soliciting horror stories from users sent down radicalizing “rabbit holes.” Trouble is, most users don’t want more censorship.

“Once, at 2 a.m., you searched YouTube for ‘Did aliens build Stonehenge?’ Ever since, your YouTube recommendations have been a mess: Roswell, wormholes, Illuminati,” Mozilla laments in its call for submissions, asking users for their “YouTube regret” so that they might “put pressure on YouTube to do better.”

“YouTube’s recommendation engine can lead users down bizarre rabbit holes — and they’re not always harmless,” the company warns.What business is it of Mozilla's, one might wonder. Perhaps if Mozilla's executives worried more about their browser's long-vanished market share, which is now on the verge of being surpassed by the Samsung Internet app, and less ...

In September 2016, University of Chicago history professor Rachel Fulton Brown forged an unlikely bond with free speech activist and firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos. Since then, Fulton Brown has celebrated the friendship in dozens of intellectually bracing essays. These Milo Chronicles explain the twists and turns of Yiannopoulos’s volatile professional life and recall ghastly encounters with social justice warriors that almost destroyed her career. In this collection, the pair emerge as united by their Catholic faith and a mutual resolve to subdue the vindictive progressive scolds who despise and defame them.

Overflowing with tenderness and righteous fury, Fulton Brown’s meticulous defenses of Yiannopoulos as a cultural icon—and devoted friend—are part handbook for prospective culture war combatants, and part moving testament to the intense spiritual and defensive alliance between one courageous academic and her incorrigible champion and campus fire-starter.

The 2013 Supreme Court decision nullifying federal "preclearance" requirements for states and local governments with a past history of discriminating against minority voters continues to have widespread repercussions as those same discriminatory states and counties methodically undertake efforts to once again make voting a more cumbersome and restricted process. A new Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights report once again seeks to quantify those acts, and once again finds that jurisdictions freed from prior preclearance requirements are shutting down their own polling places at an accelerated pace.

Updating a prior 2016 study, the Leadership Conference was now able to collect data for 757 of the 860 counties previously subject to preclearance. Those counties collectively shuttered nearly 1,700 polling places since the 2013 Shelby County vs. Holder decision; most were justified under claims of "consolidating" polling locations.

The family of Seth Rich, the murdered DNC employee whom Fox News tried to frame as the leaker of DNC emails to Wikileaks (in order to get the Russians off the hook) has had its lawsuit against Fox News reinstated thanks to a federal appeals court that reversed a prior decision dismissing it.

You may recall that last year, a federal court dismissed the Rich family’s suit, on technical grounds, in what was hardly a vindication of Fox News’ slimy, untruthful and hurtful reporting.

Today, the federal Court of Appeals reversed that decision with the result that the Rich’s case can now proceed. In its article on this reversal, Politico notes that the court seemed particularly troubled by Sean Hannity’s behavior and Fox News’ tacit acceptance:

The judges also seemed troubled that while Fox retracted [reporter Malia] Zimmerman’s reports and deleted them from the network’s ...

Joy Ann Reid and her producers put together two hours of the most incisive news commentary each week, with panels that reflect the diversity in America more than any other news show in the US. She's unafraid to put conservatives on her show and demand that they stick to facts and not filibuster with slurs or get the hell out.

After his pathetic speech in Baltimore, Reid certainly had fun at his expense with his old man rants at the wind and light bulbs. This seemed to bother the notoriously thin-skinned Trump, because he decided to launch his not-terribly-original Twitter attack on her.

Who the hell is Joy-Ann Reid? Never met her, she knows ZERO about me, has NO talent, and truly doesn’t have the “it” factor needed for success in showbiz. Had a bad reputation ...

The three Republicans challenging Donald Trump for the Presidential nomination for the 2020 election wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that the cancellation of state level primaries is a mistake - and they are right.

It is not unheard of for the incumbent party to cancel state level primaries in order to save money and negate the likelihood of the current sitting President losing the nomination to another party member. BUT that is only a viable position if their candidate is doing well and is likely to win re-election. As we can see from Trump's dwindling numbers (he is not at 38% approval) and the prospect of an economic downturn (the economy is the only thing really keeping Trump afloat), it is not a lock that he will win in 2020. So why did four states cancel their primaries? Probably fear of nasty tweets.

Earlier this week, a long, detailed, receipts-laden report dropped on Jerry Falwell Jr. and his lovely wife Becki, detailing how Falwell was using university resources for his own gain, how he bullied campus staff at Liberty University, and how he often bragged about his sexual prowess to anyone who would listen. Additionally, there were photos of Falwell and his family partying it up (with margaritas and drinks!) at a Miami nightclub, which would ordinarily be no big deal, except that Liberty U has some serious rules about dancing and drinking.

After that report came out, Reuters reported that Falwell Jr. called a student "retarded" and blasted the school's police chief as a "half-wit." Presumably he wasn't doing this while bragging about the size of his penis, but you never know, since he was reported to brag about ...

Saturday Gigs *** The Saturday Night Joke A friend told me about his trip out with his grandson. This is what he said. "Last week, I took my grandchildren to a restaurant. My 6 year-old grandson asked if he...

Welcome Piscators and Piscatrixes - and this time Nimrods and Nimrettes -- to the current installment of the occasional fishing and hunting thread. In fact, we may broaden this to camping, hiking, orienteering, and other worthwhile pursuits of the rugged...

Jessica Basland (FRA) Pic Note According the French Chess Federation, Ms. Basland's rating is 1100. This is quite low. The good news is that, of all the hotties whose pics I've posted on the chess thread, she is the only...

Specifically over the Feminist Monopoly game. The bit starts at 47:12; I've cued it up. It goes for about five minutes and then meanders. He doesn't say anything particularly novel. The interesting thing is that he's saying it at all....

Greetings, gardeners and putterers! We have a few unusual topics in today's thread. Sunflowers are not all that unusual, but they can be dramatic. I really like the one above. Here's a couple of pictures of my sunflowers. The...

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